Reflections from Brent: Praying Together

Dare to Love #7: Praying With Your Spouse

Ask your spouse if you can begin praying together. Talk about the best time to do this, whether it;s in the morning, your lunch hour, or before bedtime. Use this time to commit your concerns, disagreements and needs before the Lord. Don't forget to thank Him for His provision and blessing. Even if your spouse refuses to do this, resolve to spend this daily time in prayer yourself.

Brent:

Disclaimer: I married a Harbrace Handbook (Becky). You'll have to excuse my grammar and punctuation. Becky's out jogging so I'm wingin' it.

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I've heard one popular bible teacher talk about how when life gets busy, our marriages can feel like a "maid married to a butler". Coming and going. Who's picking up the kids? Can you stop and get the shirts from the cleaners? Mowing lawns, mountains of laundry, paying Verizon, organizing school lunches. And so on and so on...

Becky and I can fall into this. There are usually a couple of times a week where I literally leave as she's coming in the door from something. Who doesn't have these moments with kids, households, jobs, pets, and school functions?

This June Becky and I will celebrate our 9th anniversary. Somewhere over the 9 years we lost focus on praying together. Sure we pray with our kids daily, at meals, and with students in our ministry. But somehow we have let intentional prayer (just for us) slip through the cracks... we'd probably find it somewhere in our Honda Odyssey minivan. We find lots of things there : )

As a husband it is my responsibility to pray with and for Becky. It's very easy to be passive in this area. There are plenty of excuses. Life's too busy. The kids are too loud. We dvr'd American Idol.

Two weeks ago we called a timeout, changed the offense, and decided to run a different play. Monday mornings are now a time for us to pray. Just Brent and Becky. We pray for each other, our kids, and anything on our hearts. There are no candles lit, no Gregorian chants chanted. Just us at the kitchen table praying.

When can you pray with your spouse this week?